RAM

[DIXIE]

ok i don't know much about this area but how much ram should be concidered enough for a computer? i mean my comp can be upped to 768MB but is that overkill?

[Necromancer]

You can never have enough RAM. I'm putting 1.5 GB in mine, just to give it that much more of a boost. So no, it isn't overkill, though it is damn good.

[zza1pqx]

It CAN be overkill if you upgrade ram blindly though.

For instance did you know that Win98Se and below does NOT utilise RAM above 768Mb????
If you have 98Se or lower Nec and you upgraded to 1.5gig then you did so for no good reason mate.

Otherwise RAM is where its at Dix.
Cheapest and most effective upgrade there is.

[Scott]

I herd winME can only hold 768 to... not sure though..

[Necromancer]

Yeah, I know that, ZZ, but most people are now upgrading to at least Win 2000. That's where I'm at, and by the time I have that much RAM, I'll have WinXP. I'm not really worried.

[BLADE =GH=]

Im a little lost in this area as i read in PC Power Play some where that more than 512 can slow the system down. I had 256 then to 512 and 640 but at 640 it slowed everything up a bit so back to 512 and sweet now. I have winME, 1g AMD, 56K, Soltec M/Board, MX2/32 card. The 2 biggist improvememnts i have noticed is changing to a Sound Blast Live 5.1 and disable on board sound, and ripping out me LAN card for a LAN KEY which plugs into the usb port.

[zza1pqx]

RAM stores information for you that can be used instantly.
Therefore the more RAM you have the more instant information you have and the less your PC needs to use its HDD.

The upshot of this is greater speed.

However! The RAM has to be controlled and whilst there ARE MBoard memory managers that take on this role their is also a certain amount that the Processor takes on board.

INcrease your RAM and you increase the burden on your Processor until it gets to the point where it slows your PC down, as the Processor works out exactly where the instant information it can use actually is